by Kerri Coombs

The stillness of the evening descends upon the town

The factories have gone silent and the pubs have all shut down

I’m sitting in the garden,  the grass between my toes

Drinking bootleg moonshine as the day draws to a close

And there’s nowhere that I should be and noone I have to see

All I do is sit and watch the songbirds watching me

And I don’t have to work no more or even step out the door

All I do is wonder how I lived like that before

Oh, don’t you know, when they decide to send for me, I’m not going to go

How clearly I remember the life I had before

Scramblin to rise high enough to look down on the poor

All of us together hustling all the time

Up a ladder that grows twice as fast as anyone can climb

And there’s nowhere that I should be and noone I have to see

All I do is sit and watch the songbirds watching me

And I don’t have to work no more or even step out the door

All I do is wonder how I lived like that before

Oh, don’t you know, when they decide to send for me, I’m not going to go

They can wail, they can moan, they can cling to everything they own

But I’m alright, I won’t bite, I know dawn dispels the darkest night

The landlords are all restless, their fortunes on the wane

Saying never mind the danger, just get back to work again

The more we need your labour, the less we’re going to pay

And the more you sit and watch the birds, the less you will obey

But I don’t have to hear their plea as I sit here so peacefully

I’m not stepping out unless it means something to me

So there’s nowhere that I should be and noone I have to so

I’m content to sit and watch the songbirds watching me

Oh, don’t you know, when they decide to send for me, I’m not going to go

Oh, don’t you know, when they decide to send for me, I’m not going to go